Steven Howard Hoffman (born December 1951) is an American
mastering engineer.
Biography
In the early 1970s, Hoffman worked in radio and earned a degree in mass communications from
California State University, Northridge. During the late 1970s, Hoffman joined
MCA Records as catalog research and development coordinator. For the next decade, he was responsible for compiling hundreds of budget cassette releases for MCA's Special Products division. His primary focus was on jazz and big band recordings.
In 1985 he worked on a series of releases aimed at the CD market which bore the title "From the Original Master Tapes." This series included works of artists such as
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...
,
Bill Haley and
John Coltrane. He was later fired from MCA,
and has plied his trade with the
Dunhill Compact Classics and Audio Fidelity labels, owned by
Marshall Blonstein
Marshall Blonstein is an entertainment industry executive who is best known as the founder and president of the audiophile music labels Audio Fidelity and DCC Compact Classics. He also held positions at labels including Island and Ode.
Career
...
, former vice president of
Ode Records.
Steve Hoffman co-wrote and recorded as a musician (drums and guitar) the
surf rock instrumental "Cecilia Ann" with childhood friend Charles "Frosty" Horton, under the moniker of The Surftones. The track was recorded to provide an opener for a sixties surf rock anthology assembled by Hoffman in 1989, and gained popularity when it was covered by the
Pixies, also as an opener on their 1990 album ''
Bossanova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovati ...
''.
Approach
The adjustments Hoffman makes depend on the quality of the tape source and the
equalization choices of the mixing engineer. While he avoids
noise reduction, he does add subjective "colorations" through subtractive equalization and up to five layers of
vacuum tube
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
The type known as ...
distortion.
The Picks' overdubs
In February 1984, Hoffman sent what are known as safety copies of several Buddy Holly master recordings to
John Pickering of
The Picks who took them to Sound Masters studios in Houston, Texas. There, the reunited group overdubbed new vocal parts onto at least 60 recordings, and sent them back to Hoffman at
MCA
MCA may refer to:
Astronomy
* Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars
Aviation
* Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways
* Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gen ...
. The belief was that, under Hoffman's influence, MCA would have issued these "new" recordings as an album,
perhaps to commemorate the 25th year since Holly's death. This did not occur, and Hoffman was subsequently fired from MCA.
In 1992, Pickering approached Viceroy Records to arrange a deal for nationwide distribution of these overdubbed recordings, but MCA made it clear that Pickering did not have legal clearance to release such recordings.
References
External links
Steve Hoffman WebsiteIn Search of the Holy Hi-Fi Grail
JazzTimes, March 2007.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Steve
1951 births
Living people
American audio engineers
20th-century American Jews
Mastering engineers
21st-century American Jews